Senior Associate Category Manager

Primary Responsibilities

• Partner with the Sr. Business Unit Director and Category Leadership Team to support product management activities, category planning, portfolio management, and new product launch execution for assigned product categories.
• Develop and maintain recurring market trend analysis, including consumer behavior shifts, category growth drivers, retail landscape changes, competitive moves, feature trends, pricing movement, promotional activity, and white-space opportunities.
• Conduct sales trend analysis across key retailers, channels, product segments, price tiers, and item-level performance to identify risks, opportunities, share implications, and recommended actions.
• Support the development and maintenance of a three-year product roadmap aligned with consumer needs, market trends, retailer requirements, strategic priorities, and category growth objectives.
• Build and maintain competitive intelligence across product offerings, pricing, promotions, claims, features, innovation launches, refreshes, and go-to-market strategies through internal and external research, including AI-enabled monitoring tools where applicable.
• Synthesize syndicated data, retailer POS trends, eCommerce analytics, consumer research, competitive information, internal sales data, pricing data, and financial performance into actionable insights and clear recommendations.
• Support planning and analysis related to pricing, forecasting, assortment strategy, product launches, category reviews, portfolio optimization, SKU rationalization, and promotional planning.
• Aid in building fact-based business cases for new products, refreshes, line extensions, and portfolio changes, including volume, revenue, gross margin, mix, and retailer/customer implications.
• Collaborate with Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial Design, Strategy & Innovation, and Product teams to evaluate product opportunities through ideation, benchmarking, teardowns, mock-ups, consumer insights, and other analytical inputs.
• Help guide product concepts through the development process by supporting business case validation, customer/consumer need definition, positioning inputs, pricing assumptions, and launch readiness analysis.
• Partner with the Creative, Marketing, and Consumer Insights teams to support packaging, product positioning, claims development, content validation, and digital marketing inputs.
• Support channel-specific products and assortment strategies for retail and eCommerce customers, including Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, Sam's Club, Lowe's, Target, Amazon, and other strategic accounts as assigned.
• Prepare for and participate in customer line reviews, internal product presentations, Category Business Reviews, and other planning forums by developing insights, analysis, presentation materials, and recommended actions.
• Maintain inventory levels, forecast accuracy, product availability, launch readiness, and business performance metrics to identify risks, gaps, and opportunities for corrective action.
• Support lifecycle management for mature products, including portfolio health assessments, inventory disposition planning, SKU rationalization, margin improvement opportunities, and end-of-life recommendations.
• Partner with Sales and Marketing teams to support customer presentations, merchandising initiatives, promotions, product collateral, and sell-in materials with strong analytical backing.
• Track category KPIs such as revenue, margin, share, mix, innovation vitality, pricing performance, SKU productivity, and white-space revenue to support ongoing category performance management.
• Provide ad hoc analytical support, executive-ready summaries, and recommendations to help drive category growth, profitability, and cross-functional alignment.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree required; MBA preferred.
• 4+ years of experience in category management, product management, business analytics, sales analytics, marketing, finance, consumer products, or related commercial functions.
• Strong analytical capability with demonstrated experience turning data into business insights, recommendations, and action plans.
• Experience with market trend analysis, sales trend analysis, competitive analysis, pricing analysis, forecasting support, business case development, and portfolio performance tracking.
• Strong financial acumen with the ability to understand revenue, margin, mix, pricing, promotions, cost, inventory, and profitability drivers.
• Comfort working with syndicated data, retailer POS data, eCommerce analytics, consumer research, internal sales reports, and other structured/unstructured data sources. Experience with Circana/NPD or similar tools is a plus.
• Advanced proficiency in Excel and PowerPoint required; proficiency with Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft Office applications, and AI-enabled productivity or analytics tools preferred.
• Ability to work effectively across functions and influence cross-functional teams in a matrix environment.
• Strong business acumen, problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and curiosity about consumer behavior, retail trends, and competitive dynamics.
• Excellent interpersonal, verbal, written, and presentation skills, with the ability to communicate insights clearly to commercial, technical, and leadership audiences.
• Strong project management and organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple priorities, meet deadlines, and support fast-moving customer and product timelines.
• Experience within durable consumer goods, home products, appliances, retail, eCommerce, or related industries is preferred.
• Ability to travel as needed.